Yellow Belly, a Pastry Stout Cloaked in Controversy

When England’s Buxton Brewery and Sweden’s Omnipollo Brewing teamed up for an international release of Buxton’s dessert-like Yellow Belly Peanut Butter Biscuit Stout, they did away with subtlety. Yellow Belly comes cloaked in the unmistakable hood of the Ku Klux Klan, positioning itself against hate and in favor of “all things new, open-minded and progressive.”

Appearance

Under the stark label lies a stout that pours like well-carbonated brownie batter. A milky mocha head swirls atop a pool of chocolate-brown beer, bubbling up in creamy rivulets. There’s a slight separation of syrup that rises to the top, clinging to the glass like aged rum. That’s the 11% ABV at work.

Aroma

If someone around you is drinking Yellow Belly, you’ll know it right away from the candy bar sweetness following you around the room. Normally, in a dessert stout the peanut butter and cookie would separate into distinct currents, but here they’re combined into a single, harmonious entity.

Its politics aside, Yellow Belly is the delicious result of two talented breweries coming together over a single batch.”

Flavor

There are no actual biscuits, butter or nuts in the beer (Buxton head brewer Colin Stronge refuses to divulge how he pulls off the illusion) but you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise. The malted chocolate, velvety peanut butter and the milk biscuit in the aroma all come through. And that’s when the ABV creeps up the back of your palate to remind you how deceptive your senses can be.

Overall

Its politics aside, Yellow Belly is the delicious result of two talented breweries coming together over a single batch. But the fact that the beer takes an unequivocal stand for dignity and humanity makes Yellow Belly a sensation. From the very first time you lay eyes on the beer, everything about it dares you to pay attention.